What's New With Me

Finally I’m updating the blog…again I’m sorry about being fairly terrible at doing so. I blame it mostly on having very little to update about.

So a few things have happened since I last updated.

Phase III—I had my final training phase at the end of January—where my group (CHED 09) was all together again for 10 fun filled days of sessions. I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how everything went. We all got along really well and the sessions weren’t as bad as we all thought they might be. Some of the highlights were going to Semongkong and Ladybrand. Peace Corps took us to Semongkong to visit another PCV, Nick, and learn about gardens. It was a great day. We got to go to the waterfall there, and it was beautiful. I’m looking forward to going back there and abseiling (repelling) down the falls. The next day we got to go to Ladybrand, which is like 30 min. away in South Africa. Peace Corps treated us to an amazing lunch at this place called Living Life, where they grow all their own veggies and it’s basically just awesome. Our program director Charles made this great crossword puzzle for us to use to get to know Ladybrand, so after lunch we had a little scavenger hunt to complete the puzzle. We had 2 days full of Sesotho class and I was actually really glad to be in them. I use very little Sesotho in Mokhotlong and it was great to learn and practice more. It was a fun week all around.

Site Visit—Peace Corps came up to visit me at my house the first week of February. They are making visits to all the volunteers to check on them. They brought me my packages, which was excellent of them. Charles and his program assistant ‘M’e Selloane, had never been to Mokhotlong before so it was fun to experience that with them. They checked out my house and GROW and helped me figure some stuff out with my organization. It was nice having them around.

Lifeskills—I finally started teaching my lifeskills classes at Mokhotlong Primary this past week. I’m really excited about it. I’m working with 4 teachers, all men which is pretty rare around here. I am teaching the Standard 6 and 7 classes (6th and 7th grade). There are about 60 students in each class with a huge age range (10-18 years old). So far things have been going pretty well. The teachers are excited about getting help and starting to teach the program. I am teaching directly with the 6 and 7 teachers and helping the 4 and 5 teachers with their lesson plans. There isn’t time in the schedule to teach lifeskills, even though its mandatory, so the students have to stay after school for an hour each week (Tuesdays and Thursdays for me). The kids are really funny. Many of them live near me and now that they know my name they all call to me on the street—“’M’e Kristina!” Which is a pretty awesome change for me. Before when students spoke to me they were more obnoxious asking me for things or more shy. Yay people are finally getting to know me! This week we are starting to learn about self-esteem. I’m having the Standard 7’s identify their strengths and weakness this week as start.

My Birthday—So I’m 23 now!!! Yay! I had an amazing birthday this year. Irena and Melissa came up to visit me. I was SUPER excited about that (we get very few visitors up here in the mountains). They came Thursday to Monday. On Thursday night we made tacos for dinner and had a total blast putting together the ginger bread house gram sent me. We also played this amazing game Jess sent called the Scrambled States of America to improve our brains. Then I showed them around town for the day on Friday. We played with the cute babies at Touching Tiny Lives (TTL), visited the hotel, and our VRC, and GROW. Then we went back to my place and after dinner had a birthday party with Parker, Sara, this new America girl Andrea, and Kirsten and Kevin from TTL. My house was packed but we had fun. On Saturday Me, Irena, Melisaa, Parker, Andrea, and Sara went to Sani Pass—which is the border to South Africa in Mokhotlong and one of the highest mountain passes in Africa. It also has the highest pub in Africa. It’s so beautiful there! We pitched our tent and decided to go pony trekking, which is Lesotho for horseback riding. That was SO much fun. Its only about the second time I’ve ever done it in my life. While we were out riding we saw this crazy cloud enter the pass—it looked like a snake the way it was moving through the mountains—and by the time we finished our ride we were inside the cloud. We all were joking around that we were literally riding into the abyss. We played cards and hung out that night. It was raining super hard, and our tent filled with water so me, Irena, and Melissa had to sneak into the backpackers with the other 3. Then we went back to my place and chilled out for the day until Irena and Melissa had to go home on Monday morning. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and packages!

Work—So things with GROW are less than ideal. To date I haven’t had a lot of actual work to do, which is unfortunate. I’ve helped with some workshops, attended events, held a lifeskills workshop, and done some work with an income generation activity (IGA) project—and done copious amounts of proofreading and time wasting (during which I taught myself all 50 states and capitals, their location on the map, all 44 US presidents, and the countries in Africa). I also may or may not have watched the entire series of Battle Star Gallactica (desperate times call for desperate measures to keep entertained ok)…which does provide funny insight into the things that Dwight Shrute says on The Office. During their visit, Peace Corps tried to straighten out my situation with GROW, but things haven’t gone particularly well so far. I was put with another staff member for a project in Mateanong (about 3 hours west of me) but I’m not super confident about it. So far my work with them has consisted of going to Mateanong one day (after waiting 1.5 hrs at GROW before leaving) for no apparent reason at all, and then being told to come at 8:30am to go back to Mateanong and finding out after arriving at GROW that they left without me at 8am. Ugh. I swear I’m a much more patient person since coming here, however on this particular day I was super mad. But I’ve adopted a new attitude about my work situation. I really don’t sweat it anymore. I check in to see if there’s anything for me to do, and then leave. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s simply not worth making myself upset over. Now that I’ve stared teaching lifeskills and really started feeling out other projects here in town I have enough work to do; and I have the comfort of knowing that Peace Corps would support my separation with GROW if it ever gets to that point without my having to move.
There’s this man that lives near me who has a crafts business. I’ve met him numerous times along the road and at random times. He is a really intelligent guy and one of the only ambitious Mosotho I have come across. He currently sells his crafts at Sani Pass and brings them to Maseru but is actively seeking new markets. Irena, Melissa and I went to visit him during their visit and I got to see more of his work—which is really cool. He makes crafts and earrings out of cow horn/bone. We talked at his house and I’m going to help him with his business. I’m going to help him make a pamphlet and a portfolio of his work. I’m excited about it because I know it’s really going to help him a lot and it’ll be nice to be a part of that. I will however most likely post the pamphlet for those of you how are curious/interested in his stuff—we’re meeting tomorrow and maybe we’ll even make a website or eBay store…


So that’s about all I can think of to update you all on. Sorry it’s really long and super late lol. I want to take this time to say thanks to my amazing friends and family who sent me packages these past few weeks: Thanks Gram, Mom, Dad, Jillian, Catherine, Aunt Sanna, Sarah, and Christy!! You all are fantastic!
Also, Happy late birthdays to Gram, Sarah, Lindsay, and Hannah!

Final side note: the weather: well its sort of fall here now. In the lowlands I hear it’s disgustingly hot and gross (no thanks) but here it’s cooler and rainy. It rains at about 2ish just about everyday. I carry a neon orange little kids Spider Man umbrella these days. But it’s getting a little too cool…like the ‘oh god it’s only February and I’m using my down comforter at night!’ Which is leading us to believe that this winter is going to obscenely cold here in the mountains. Ugh. Gross. I give it about another month or so before it gets too cold for wearing just a t-shirt during the day…